"Rise and shine, everybody up." Minho shouts from the bedroom doorway. I'm already awake, and have been, for hours now. I woke up early in the morning when Minho left, then couldn't go back sleep. So, I had laid there awake, the blood curdling screams of the griever's latest victim haunting my mind. At least it hadn't been me. The one person a night thing had given me a thought. This was on purpose. The doors hadn't suddenly broken, no, the creators, whoever they were, wanted this to happen.

"I don't want to exist today, think I'll try again tomorrow." Kate whines, rolling onto her stomach and pulling a pillow over her head. I couldn't agree more.

"Too bad, I can still see you." Clint says, poking her in the ribs. She curves out of the way, ripping the pillow off of her head to smack him with it.

"Alright let's get going, we have a lot of people to convince." Newt says, coming in behind Minho. Always the party crasher. I'm not looking forward to asking all of the gladers to risk their lives on a plan we aren't even sure about, so I change the subject.

I yawn, sliding out of my sleeping bag. As soon as I'm out the cold air reaches my skin, making me shiver. I pull Minho's jacket tighter around me, and hug my knees to my chest. The glade is never cold? Just another effect of losing the sun I guess

Before long we head down in a somber mood, prepared to eat breakfast for the last time. I'm surprised when I see Alby already sitting there, I didn't know he was out of bed? A large white bandage is wrapped over half his head, covering his wound. He recovered quickly.

"Hey Alby, how ya feeling?" I ask, sliding in across from him.

"Like klunk." He responds, barely glancing up from his food.

"Well we have good news, we might have found a way out." I say, leaving out the part about how half of us will probably die getting there. Alby's eyes suddenly snap up to meet mine, filled with an intensity I've never seen before.

"We can't go back." He says, violently shaking his head. "We can't go back, that's why I burned the maps."

"Well good thing we hid the real ones then." Newt says flatly, sitting down across from us. I'm not sure what's more shocking, the fact that Newt doesn't care, or the fact that Alby did it in the first place.

"Wait you did that?" Thomas asks. Newt must've just let him out of the slammer.

Alby nods miserably, "then I slammed my head on the table so you'd think it was someone else."

"So Thomas, how was your second stay in the slammer?" Kate asks, sliding in beside me, and I for one, am more than grateful for the subject change. I can't believe Alby would do something like that? How bad was whatever he remembered? I don't think I want to know.

"Boring." Thomas answers, shooting Kate a glare.

"At least you had someone to talk to." Kate says. I'm still a little weirded out by the fact that he and Teresa can talk telepathically, and I kind of wonder how it works.

"Yeah.... Well, sort of anyway." Thomas answers, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. I notice him glancing at Teresa, and wonder what they are saying. Their 'trick' is really starting to bother me.

"We should get going." Minho says, looking out the door. We all snap our heads in his direction, giving him dirty looks; no one wants to think about what has to be done today. "I'm just saying."

"I hate it when you're right." I grumble, standing up to throw away my trash.

"Me too."

All of the keepers spread out across the glade, each trying their best to convince their own groups to go. Most people at least listened, only a few storming away in anger. Those who wouldn't listen, however, were very vocal about their opinions, walking around telling everyone how stupid they were. They backed off once they realized no one was listening, but stayed around the edges of the glade, whispering and shaking their heads.

I had gone with Minho to convince the runners. It was easier than I thought It'd be, all things considered. The runners are the bravest and the toughest for a reason, and every single one of them had agreed to go.

Now, we were handing out weapons and supplies. Giving everyone backpacks filled with food,water, bandages and grief serum, even though we didn't think anyone would get stung.

"we're really doing this aren't we?" I say dazedly, talking to no one in particular.

"Ya, guess we are." Kate sighs beside me, I hadn't even noticed she was there.

"Crap this is crazy." I say, giving her a worried look. "And we've done some crazy klunk."

"You know it." She responds, a small smile breaking through her nervous frown. She takes my hand and squeezes it. "It'll be alright though."

"I hope so." I say, squeezing back, my lips pinching into a grimace.

"You're like a sister to me, you know that?" Kate says, an unusual seriousness in her voice. "You're my best friend Sky."

"You're like a sister to me too, and you've been my friend for as long as I can remember, and I couldn't have done it without you." I say with a wink, smiling a little at my lame attempt at a joke. Kate has always felt like a sister to me.

"You're right, you'd never have survived with out me." She says dramatically, her somber mood gone as quickly as it came.

"Probably not." I reply, throwing a glance in Jessica's direction. Kate laughs.

"But I'm serious, your the closest thing I've ever had to family." She says with a nod.

"Thanks, I think you're the step child though." I tease, giving her a strange look.

"Nuh-uh, you're the red head!" Kate snickers, pulling a piece of my hair.

"Hey!" I retort, scowling. Then I laugh, trying to push down the anxiety building within me. One or both of us may be dead by morning. I shudder at the thought and push it away, telling myself that we'll be fine. Kate too seems to have lost her desire to talk, so we stand there in silence watching the final preparations.

"You girls ready for this?" Newt sighs walking towards us. He looks exhausted, but determined, dark circles ringing his bloodshot eyes, and lips set in a firm line.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I sigh, my voice staying surprisingly steady.

"Then let's go." He says, pointing towards the maze. About fifty gladers circle up in front of the doors, looking like a small army. A unprepared and pitiful army, but an army none the less. Somehow, I end up at the front, next to Minho, and Newt. I'm vaguely aware of the rest of our group standing somewhere near by, but I can't quite see them. Alby, who was eventually convinced by Newt to come with us, stands off to the side, at the very edge of the crowd. Something inside me says I should keep an eye on him, but I ignore it.

"Should someone give a speech or something?" Minho asks, looking at Newt.

"Sure go ahead." Newt says, throwing a hand in the air. I watch as the crowd grows quiet waiting for Minho to speak.

Minho looks around, and then without pause says four words, his voice completely flat. "Be careful, don't die."

"Great, we're all bloody inspired." Newt says, rolling his eyes.

"Wow." I whisper to Minho when he returns to stand beside me.

"Hey, I'd like to see you do better." He retorts, pretending to be offended.

"I most definitely could." I say, half rolling my eyes in agreement with Newt.

"Fine." He says, stepping back into the circle. "Everyone, Sky would like to say something." He shouts, stepping aside and gesturing to me.

"No..I.. Ok fine." I stutter, giving him a dirty look. Nervously I step forwards to face the gladers.

"I know what we're about to do seems crazy." I pause, taking the time to look around the circle, then continue. "and it is. freedom comes at a price, are you willing to pay it? I know am. I'm sick and tired of being treated like some lab rat, sick and tired of always running, tired of taking what ever crap the creators throw our way. And I know I can't be the only one, So tonight, we fight back. Let's show WICKED once and for all that they failed, they tried their best to break us, to take away our fight, but they failed. Tonight, we stand! Tonight, we are done being lab rats!" I shout, surprised at my own confidence. Then I look straight up and add, "hear that WICKED? we're coming for you! Who's with me?!"

At that the gladers burst in to cheers, chanting and screaming, pumping their fists in the air. "Gladers! Gladers! Gladers!"I yell too, joining the chorus of voices filling the air, and for a moment, the fear is gone, replaced by a fierce determination to beat the creators. To win the game.

"See, told ya I could do better." I tell Minho as we take off, the gladers chants still following us into the maze.

"You win." He says, shaking his head and laughing. He grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers as we run. We've gotten so good at matching each others pace, that I hardly even think about it. It's a good thing too, or else we would probably knock each other over a lot.

"Speech like that got me thinking maybe you should be leader." Newt chimes in, keeping up surprisingly well despite his limp. He never told me how he got it and I never asked, judging by the look on his face whenever someone mentioned it, I'd guessed it was painful to talk about.

"Ya right." I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Newt just shrugs, keeping his eyes focused in front of him. Which would probably be a good idea, considering my track record with running into things, but I can't help stealing backwards glances at the rest of the gladers.

An hour in and the chants have died out long ago. The group has begun to separate out, dividing into, basically, two categories, the runners, and the non-runners. I of course run up front with Minho, Kate and the other runners, along with Newt and Teresa, who are the only two non-runners able to keep up with us. I remind myself that Newt used to be a runner before he broke his leg, so it makes sense that he could match our pace.

The non-runners are keeping up remarkably well however, considering their lack of experience. Life in the glade has kept everyone in good shape. They only a run a few paces behind us, breathing heavy but never stopping, which is amazing considering they don't do this everyday. I do, and my muscles are still beginning to burn, I can only image what it must be like for them.

Butterflies tickle my stomach as we approach the cliff. I have to remind myself not to hold my breath in anticipation of what we could find. Although deep down, I think I know exactly what we will find. This wasn't meant to be an easy test.

"This is it." Minho says, as we reach the end of the corridor. I nod and squeeze his hand, closing my eyes and turning left. We round the corner, and come face to face with the very thing I've been dreading.

Grievers.